title: Role of mechanical factors in fate decisions of stem cells.
abstract: Stem cells derived from adult tissues or from the inner cell mass of blastocyst-stage embryos can self-renew in culture and have the remarkable potential to undergo lineage-specific differentiation. Extensive studies have been devoted to achieving a better understanding of the soluble factors and the mechanism(s) by which they regulate the fate decisions of these cells, but it is only recently that a critical role has been revealed for physical and mechanical factors in controlling self-renewal and lineage specification. This review summarizes selected aspects of current work on stem cell mechanics with an emphasis on the influence of matrix stiffness, surface topography, cell shape and mechanical forces on the fate determination of mesenchymal stem cells and embryonic stem cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell & Developmental Biology & Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jiaxi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Farhan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Jianjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008954:Models, Biological; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*